NEW ORLEANS — In your Breakdown: weather radar is about to get better.
The National Weather Service is supposed to finish setting up the KLIX radar in its new location by the end of March. It will now be called the KHDC radar.
You’ll likely remember that the radar was at the National Weather Service in Slidell for almost thirty years. In November, it was turned off and moved to Hammond.
When it’s recalibrated and back online, it will improve forecasting here in New Orleans, be tilted lower so it can detect storms and storm features lower to the ground, and it will solve a so-called ‘radar gap’ for Baton rouge.
What’s a radar gap?
It’s a spot where radar can’t detect the lower portion of the storm because the closest radar is too far away.
This graphic by the National Weather Service explains it perfectly. You can see that because of the angle, the farther the radar, the higher above the ground the coverage is.
The Washington Post reports that there are radar gaps across the country, areas of poor coverage in rural areas and in big cities have allowed tornados to wreak havoc with no warning - or delayed warning - to people on the ground.
Now, the National Weather Service is lowering the beam at dozens of radar sites to improve the reliability of severe weather forecasts.
In Hammond, the goal was to get the radar back up and running in time for hurricane season, and we’re well within that time frame, with a little less than 70 days to go.
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